The research behind the plan: your state matters ever less in Presidential contests

// Published February 23, 2006

National Popular Vote unveiled its plan to secure a direct election of the President today at the National Press Club.

Original research by FairVote makes the case for the interstate compact. Because of the Electoral College, Presidential candidates care about ever fewer states and ever fewer voters' hearts and minds. Download the report here.

FairVote - Report: Presidential Elections Inequality
As proven definitively in FairVote's new reports The Shrinking Battleground and Who Picks the President?, the Electoral College system will, if not reformed, relegate two-thirds of Americans to the sidelines during presidential elections for years to come. Today, record-setting campaign resources are targeted at just a handful of states. Voter mobilization money, advertising dollars, campaign energy, candidate visits and almost certainly policy decisions are all spent to sway voters in roughly a dozen states. That number of competitive states is far smaller -and more consistent election to election- than it was just two decades ago. The result is rapidly growing inequality in voter turnout, especially among young people. Racial fairness is undermined because these states are disproportionately white.